Today Starbucks announced their mobile app for BlackBerry, in the US. I know I can be found with a BlackBerry in one hand, my coffee in the other. And now I can have them both in one. This is perfect for those who frequent their Starbucks locations. Check it out…

Which devices:  BlackBerry World 8800, 8820, Bold 9000, 9650, 9700, Curve series 83xx, 85xx, Storm, Storm2, and the Tour.

What features are included?

• Check the balance of your Starbucks Card
• Reload your Starbucks Card with any major credit card
• Pay for Starbucks purchases using the mobile payment feature in more than 1000 Starbucks in U.S. Target Stores and 16 trial stores in Seattle and Northern California.
• Find the nearby Starbuck stores using the store locator feature
• Check your Starbucks Rewards status

This of course requires that you purchase a Starbucks Card. Then register it at Starbucks here for the Starbucks Reward program. After you register, you download the app and sign in with the user name and password you chose. That easy. The green status is achieved after five stars or five purchases. I would like to see this apply to Canada too, since I’m sure the US isn’t the only coffee consuming capital of the world. The Rewards Program applies to both Canada and the US however the  app only works in certain US Starbucks locations only.

Then you can download the app one of two ways. First by texting to the number 70845 with the word “Go”.

Or you can download the app from the Starbucks link OTA here

You can read more details about the app and how it works from the Starbucks Newsroom announcement here.

If you download it and try it, let us know what you think. I have to admit, when I saw this was released it brought a smile to my face, and I can’t wait to try it out.

***Just had to let you know that the app works perfectly fine. You open it, click the Menu button, scroll down to Payment Trial. The next window tells you to use your app to pay. Select Participating Stores and make sure that Enable Payments is checked. Click Search By Zip Code and put in the Zip Code, and click Search. Go back to the main screen with your card and you’ll see the green button that says Pay. Click that. Then you’ll see the screen that displays your bar code of the card and it says Scan Now! Let the Starbucks barista scan your phone and it’s done. Click done and you have paid for your Starbucks! That fast and that easy. ***

It’s really no surprise that Verizon would be getting ready to clear out some of the older BlackBerry devices. GizmoFusion has provided screen shots that confirm Verizon has put the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Curve 8330, 8830 World Edition, and Pearl Flip 8230 to end of life status. As we said it’s really no surprise that Big Red decided to stop selling these devices, as most of them have been replaced by newer versions. The only device that really surprised me is the Pearl Flip 8230, and I would really like to know what will replace it. Myself I would really like to see a new CDMA Pearl smartphone…

Obviously the Storm 9530 was replaced by the Storm2 9550, Curve 8330 by Curve 8530, and 8830 well I guess that would be the Tour 9630. So what’s next for Verizon? We expect to see the BlackBerry 9650 (Tour2, Essex, Bold, or whatever) and hopefully a new Pearl smartphone. Stay tuned for more details…

Cocky Culture has a variety of themes, very unique and very original. We’ve posted the review of Conquest, which is a fave of mine.  The theme I’m reviewing is Rocker Chic. The theme is very rock styled and classic. And there couldn’t be a better time for a new theme, especially with the fifty percent sale!

Themes by Cocky Culture are half off for one more day. So as I go into detail about the theme, keep in mind that you can even find two for the price of one!

This is the description given for the theme:

Rocker Chic is an edgy, progressive design that maintains its sense of femininity all the while pushing a harder, edgier look. Everyone deserves to feel like a Rockstar, even your Blackberry!

I downloaded the theme to my BlackBerry 9630 Tour. The theme is dark yet vibrant. It sports wings behind a heart that is edged in black, like an antique valentine. The battery bars are displayed in lavender. The wings are like burnt sienna. The heart is a dark red and in the right lobe sits a skull within the heart. There’s a blotch of white in the background. Five icons sit on the bottom, messages, contacts, calendar, browser, and media. Those are default, but they are able to be personalized to the five you’d like to show. When the menu is pulled up, the background is a salmon pink, and has antique like etching in the background. It reminds me of my great grandmother’s table cloths. The designed icons have black edging around them. When pulling up messages, for example, the menu is a darker salmon.

Now here’s another surprise. When you get a message, a heart appears in the corner of the icon, such as a message, or im. Even the browser has decor from the theme. It didn’t slow my Tour down, and adds personality. There are eleven different Premium themes that Cocky Culture has available, Rocker Chic being one of them.

This theme reminds me of a rocking Valentine every day. Now I rate according to how appeasing the theme is, which is very, the customer service which Tony is outstanding, and how my phone reacts to it, which was great. So on all counts, I give this theme 5/5. Conquest is really nice too, I can dress my phone with themes to show my mood or feeling of the day.

If you hurry today, you can grab the theme for fifty percent off, if you use the following code: 2d50off .

You can download Rocker Chic from Cocky Culture here >

Compatible with BlackBerry handsets: 83xx Curve series, Curve 8900, 8700, 88xx World series, 82xx Flip Pearl series, Storm 95xx series, Tour 9630, Bold 9000

Compatible OS: 4.5, 4.6, 4.7

[rating: 5/5]

Great news for Pacman lovers! BlackBerry OS announced a free version of Pacman for the BlackBerry. And I have to admit, it’s just like the arcade version. It comes complete with a high score list, mp3 sounds, and support for trackball and keyboard. It’s available for the Tour on down to the Pearl, but unfortunately the Storm is not included.

You can download the Pacman OTA for the Tour, Bold, and Curve 8900 here >

You can download the Pacman OTA for the World 88xx, Curve 83xx, and Pearl 81xx here >

****the links no longer work, we apologize to our readers, but not all good things last forever.

[via: BlackBerry OS]

Elecite has just introduced a hot new theme for the Bold, Curve 8300 & 8900, Storm and 8800. The theme is called Opus, and features customizable icons with a dual-screen animations. It’s quite a hot theme from the people at Elecite. To show off this hot theme they are offering 30% off from the first 200 people who purchase it. To take advantage of the discount use coupon code “opus” when checking out.

Pick up the Opus theme from Elecite.com >

Our society has become sedentary, work schedules so busy most of us never find time for the gym. The available exercise media doesn’t work so well when you are watching perfect physiques showing you how it’s done. The Wii changed the way we look at physical fitness and recreation, bringing back exercise and making it fun.  Thankfully because of these types of console games and fitness cards included, many software companies have been producing great fitness apps for the BlackBerry. What a great concept! Having your BlackBerry as your Physical Trainer as well, so that you can take your trainer wherever you go. With this in mind, I am introducing you to the app iFit.

This app, iFit v 1.0 by MMMOOO, is $12.99. It is designed with seven different exercises, and you can choose how many and length of time, which adds a touch of a professional trainer. There are different sound effects that you can choose from to inspire you. The UI is very simple and concise, pleasant to view and I know that you are going to be very familiar with it. What’s really nice is there is also a calendar that keeps track of your workout days, so you can see progress or slacking. To install, it’s fairly easy, here are the directions:

1. Download the following file to your PC:
2. Unzip the file to your Desktop.
3. Connect your Blackberry to your computer.
4. Open up Desktop Manager – Application Loader – Add.
5. Find the file called ‘iFit.alx’ and hit ‘OK’.

The icon appears on the BlackBerry screen as shown. It’s somewhat similiar to the FitDeck icon with a green green background instead of blue, and the white silhouette facing toward the front doing a push up in the opposite direction of the NexFit. It takes about seven seconds to load. You see the white background with exercise silhouettes gracing the background and the white silhouette on the icon is now green, and there’s a green iFit banner. There are two choices, Option and Exit. Q brings up the options, which include Enter, Help, Online help, About us, and below are option and Exit. P is the opposite side option button. Enter will take you to a Select Screen. As you scroll over each exercise silhouette, they actually move! There are seven different exercises and one will require a pull up bar for pull ups and two require dumbells. There is also a silhouette for sound. This brings up six different sounds. You can scroll over them and they sound off, choose confirm at the bottom to set the sound, then back out back to the exercises. Click on an exercise silouette and it takes you to another white screen with a green 0 on the Background and the name of the exercise on the green banner. You can choose the numbers of repetitions by fives, and the speed you will do them in as in seconds. Click the Q and the program counts down from 3, 2, and 1. The program then counts the exercise repetitions with you as in “one” “two” , “one” “two, and so forth until the end when the bell dings. It then goes over to the calendar month so that you can check your workout. You are able to do all your exercises and track your progress or your lack of progress. Help gives you general guidelines and Online Help is just that. I do have one thing to suggest however, go online to the MMMOOO blog website, or click here: iFit User Guide. This pdf user guide will be a tremendous help to understanding and navigating through the application. At first I had no clue what keys worked and was a bit confused but the user guide was very handy. The app is very easy to back out of and to close out of.

Pros: It’s easy to use once you learn how to navigate it, the UI is pleasing to the eye, and it flows well from screen to screen, and the sounds are neat. It is very reminiscent of Wii fit. There only seven exercises to do, sounds can be changed, and it keeps track of your progress on a calendar so you can be inspired and motivated. The workouts aren’t very long, so it’s great for doing once or even twice a day, even doing some in office or at lunch if possible. The counting with you helps you to keep you motivated as well letting you feel you have company, your trainer is there to keep you on track. The movements are fluid and help you keep time. The Calendar is a real incentive with this app.

Cons: Figuring out the navigation of the app took some investigating and research, so that took a bit of time. There are only seven exercises included, and if you don’t have or want to work with equipment, then there’s only four. You could probably take the dumb bell exercises and use extra force to do them without dumb bells, but the pull ups requires a pull up bar of some sort. It would be nice to see a few more exercises with this app, as it’s fun. In the future it would be nice to have some background music, but I do love the way that it does them with you.

Grab a copy of iFit for only $12.99 from the BlackBerry Sync Store >

Compatible devices: 8300 (Curve), 8310 (Curve), 8320 (Curve), 8330 (Curve), 8350i (Curve), 8800, 8820, 8830, and the Storm.

Compatible OS: 4.2,4.3, 4.4,4.5, 4.6

[rating: 4.25/5]

Our store has a wide selection of software available, but there’s one thing to keep in mind: We have not forgotten that many of the best things in life are FREE, and in today’s economical crisis, free is great! So you’re going to see not only reviews or announcements on current and upcoming software, you are going to see free applications that are available from our store.

So today I’m introducing this great Freebie. Bubble Popper v1.0, by Aim Productions. The description reads that it’s a simple yet addictive game with bubbles in five colors. The object of the game is to move smaller chains of bubbles out to form larger chains to take out since the longer the chain, the more points awarded. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, I tried the game, and it’s fun. They weren’t exaggerating about addictive. As you figure out the puzzle game, you find yourself thinking one more game…and you know how that goes. It’s fun, and as a puzzle it’s hard to stop. The game at first takes a bit to load but it’s easy to use and figure out.  I’d have to somewhat compare it to Chuzzle without the little balls shaking or the rows locking. Give it a try and see what you think. After all, what have you got to lose?

Grab a free copy of Bubble Popper from the BlackBerry Sync Store >

Compatible with the Curve 8300 Series, 8800 Series, Pearl 8100 Series, Pearl Flip 8200 series.

Compatible with OS: 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6

ÜberTwitter released their next Beta, 2. With all the Twitter clients out there, including TwitterBerry, SocialScope, and TweetGenius, ÜberTwitter has been working hard to improve and work on their client as well. Some of the new features and fixes include several new and great things to look forward to including: two notification profiles, internal GPS support, view your friends and their information, your friends’ list of followers, when your friendss joined Twitter, shortcuts, marking tweets as faves and unmarking faves, support for wifi, and support for scrolling BlackBerry phones such as the 8700 just to name a few. For a total list of updates and fixes, you can visit the ÜberTwitter homepage.

For those who aren’t too familiar with ÜberTwitter, it’s a Twitter client that integrates with Google Talk and also works with cell sites not just Satellites for GPS allowing you to list your location. If you have it and haven’t updated, it’s time. And if you’re interested in trying a new Twitter Client give it a try.

You can download ÜberTwitter here at the ÜberTwitter download OTA>.

[via: BlackBerry Rocks]

Today was a very exciting day, with the official release of a new Twitter client named TweetGenius. I know there’s Tiny Twitter, TwitterBerry, SocialScope, SocialScope Lite, and ÜberTwitter, so what makes TweetGenius so unique? It’s not like SocialScope or ÜberTwitter, it doesn’t integrate Facebook or Google, or any other program with Twitter. It’s not like TwitterBerry or any other applications. This is everything you ever wanted in a Twitter application and more. The description said it was made for BlackBerry users by BlackBerry users who know what they want. I’ve been hearing so much about it on Twitter, and very excited that it’s finally out. As you can see by the following video, it’s pretty impressive in what it can do.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-B5lTc06Lg]

The Application is the vision and design of Boy Genius from the Boy Genius Report. The code for the program was done by Dossy Shiobara, a master coder. The current version is 1.0 with 1.1 in the works. The program is $9.99 but for now the only versions supported are the Curve 8900 and the Bold, so they are offering the application for $4.99 for two weeks as the Storm, 88xx, and 83xx versions will be out by that time. The price includes free upgrades till v2.0 and is tied to the pin, but don’t worry, this will include if you have to get a warranty or insurance replacement as long as it’s one application on one phone at any given time.

So now with the review. I installed the application and the first thing you see is the classic blue Twitter bird icon. Click on the icon and it brings up TweetGenius by BGR. The colors are appeasing to the eye in white and different shades of blue. It’s a cartoon city in the back (Must be T Town), and there are three icons on the front: Friends (with a person and shadow icon), Replies (with the @ sign), and Direct Messages (with an open envelope that has a letter coming out). On each of these icons you will see a bubble in the right corner with the number of unread messages. Clicking on either one of these icons will move the screen up and the next screen rolls up from the bottom. Click on any of the messages, and the the full message rolls in from left to right. Click on the name of the friend and the friend’s profile rolls down from the top. Pretty sweet how it rolls and is like an intricate cube you roll to read. If you click the option button you have Refresh, Mark all read, Send tweet, Friends Timeline, Replies, Direct Messages, Public Timeline, Go to user, Search, Options, and Help.

When going into your Friends and other messages, your friends pictures show on the left, and your’s on the right. When you click on a tweet and click options and choose to tweet, retweet, or reply, a quotation balloon shows up, and the background darkens. Fill out what you want to say and hit the options button. Now the choices are: Select; Check Spelling; Send; Insert my location; Clear Field; Show Symbols; and Close. Choose send and “Poof!” your message disappears in a cloud of smoke! It’s like message be gone!

The program is nice in that you can follow through it. When you are on someone’s profile your options are: Select; Refresh; Reply; Direct Message; View timeline; Go to user; Follow this user; Track this user; and Close.

So in rating this application, the colors and how appeasing to the eye it is makes this a five and a half stars out of five. For user friendliness, it’s definitely five stars. For the way the program rolls and works, amazing, and for that I would give it ten stars! It looks and works like an application for Twitter you could only hope for, it’s very much like what you see on your desktop only much more impressive. It’s amazing enough to earn an icon on your BlackBerry because it’s just as awesome as our BlackBerry phones we have come to love. So great job Boy Genius! And hats off to Dossy Shiobara as well. And most importantly, there hasn’t been one error message yet, which really impresses me. It’s great on my battery and I haven’t missed a tweet yet. When I’ve had to restart my phone, I haven’t had to log in to get my messages.

[rating: 5/5]

To learn more about TweetGenius, to take advantage of the special going for $4.99, and to download this great application  that will bring Twitter to you in a new way, the way it should be presented, click here.

Currently the program is only compatible with the Bold and the Curve 8900, will be compatible with the Storm, 88xx, and 83xx series.

Check out TwitterGenius >

[via: TweetGenius & Boy Genius Report]

Our friends at Elecite have just introduced a new theme to go along with their gaming themes. First they started with PSB, which was based on Sony’s Playstation. Now Elecite is proud to introduce XBerry, which changes the look of your BlackBerry to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 interface. This hot theme features a sliding bottom dock (on Bold, Curve 8900 and Storm) with 10 icons (7 on Storm) and 2 today screen icons to keep you in sync with your phone. It’s a pretty hot design and available for BlackBerry Bold, Curve 83xx, Curve 8900, Storm and 8800 series for only $6.99.

Check out XBerry by Elecite >